Christian Broadcaster Still Thinks Globally, Begins to Act Locally : Simi Valley: High Adventure Ministries, a worldwide radio network, will host forum in which pastors will question City Council candidates.

High on a hill overlooking Simi Valley sits the brain trust of High Adventure Ministries, a global radio network carrying messages of Christian evangelism in 14 languages all over the world.

Over 15 years, High Adventure’s Voice of Hope radio network has grown from the pet project of a former aerospace-executive-turned-minister into one of the largest providers of Christian radio in the world.

Now the global network is going local.

At 9 a.m. today, High Adventure Ministries will for the first time host a forum for candidates running for political office.

Pastors from a dozen churches throughout Simi Valley will spend 2 1/2 hours grilling candidates for the Simi Valley City Council on the strength of their moral fiber and why they should be elected to fill two seats on the council.

“We feel Simi Valley is a very religious community, very family-oriented,” said network President John D. Tayloe. “It is unusual for us to do something like this, but we want people to get the message that they need to get out there and vote to make sure their voices are heard.”

Four of the seven council contenders have agreed to participate: incumbent Sandi Webb, former police chief Lindsey Paul Miller, past Chamber of Commerce president Michael S. McCaffrey and Planning Commissioner Dean Kunicki.

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None of the candidates knows much about High Adventure Ministries.

McCaffrey used to work in an office next to the religious radio station, and the Simi Valley Police Department gained permission to install a transmitter on High Adventure property atop Chatsworth Peak while Miller was police chief.

“I’ve really never had any experience with them,” McCaffrey said. “It does seem a little different. But I think it’s nice that any group takes the initiative to have a forum, because the more information people have, the better the process works.”

The radio station and pastors participating in the forum said they know very little about the candidates and hope today’s event will change that.

The Rev. Ken Craft, pastor at Sonrise Christian Fellowship, said he plans to share the candidates’ responses with his congregation of more than 1,000 Simi Valley residents. He also hopes the forum will prepare him to write a voter guide to be posted on the church bulletin board.

“For me it’s an opportunity to find out a little more of the heart of each of the candidates,” Craft said. “I want to know what value they place upon the local churches, and I think it’s great that High Adventure Ministries is creating the opportunity to ask these questions.”

High Adventure Ministries was founded in 1979 by Tayloe’s father-in-law, former aerospace executive George Otis, after he experienced a revelation that spurred him to devote his life to radio evangelism.

Although Otis is a friend of former presidential candidate and television evangelist Pat Robertson, he insists that High Adventure Ministries is nonpolitical and that today’s forum is nonpartisan.

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In fact, Otis and Tayloe, who will both be out of the country on Election Day, have already cast their ballots.

“Our objective is not to press for any candidate or party in particular,” Otis said. “Until now we have been totally occupied with all the countries in the world except our own. We’ve neglected our own community . . . and we just decided it was time to do something about that.”

Otis launched his radio empire in southern Lebanon with the backing of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army, an alliance that made the station a frequent target of bomb attacks.

In 1985, terrorists blew up part of the station, killing three Lebanese staff members. The station, which still broadcasts country music punctuated with one-minute Bible readings in English and Arabic, was back on the air the next day at a temporary site.

Tayloe describes High Adventure’s religious bent as “nondenominational Christian.”

“We don’t want to get caught up in the theory where you have everybody pigeonholed, from the ultraconservatives to the rolling-down-the-aisle charismatics,” Tayloe said. “Though we do lean more towards the charismatics.”

Tayloe and Otis spend at least a week each month traveling the world to preach, raise funds and check up on their three far-flung radio transmitters in Lebanon, Belau in the western Pacific and Simi Valley.

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High Adventure pays the bulk of its $3.5-million annual operating costs with contributions solicited from a mailing list of about 30,000 supporters in the United States and Canada. In this country, the station can only be heard on shortwave radio, because officials have not been interested in an audience here until recently. Now they have applied for permission to operate an FM station.

Over the years, High Adventure Ministries has gained the support of many influential political leaders. In 1970, during a visit with then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, Otis said God spoke through him to prophesy that his friend would become President.

In 1991, President Bush praised Voice of Hope for bringing its Christian message to American troops during the Persian Gulf War.

Now, Otis said, he wants to pay closer attention to the needs of the community in which he lives.

“We’ve always been involved in so much of what’s going on in the world,” Otis said. “Doing a local forum may seem like a small thing, but it’s a big step for us.”

FYI

High Adventure Ministries will host a forum for candidates for Simi Valley City Council at 9 a.m. today) at the Clarion Hotel, 1775 Madera Road.